Additional Resources

VPBA Newsletter - May 2006

Business Horizons

A monthly
publication of Business Affairs

The
University of
Texas at
San Antonio

May 2006

In All
We Do,
We Do With

EXCELLENCE

Every
Person,
Every Day,
Every Job

Kerry's
Korner......As another
quarter quickly approaches, please take a minute to convey
appreciation to your colleagues for their valuable assistance and
contributions. This is Police Appreciation Week – perhaps a note to
one of our officers or Police Department civilian staff would be in
order. Our 3rd recipient of the Celebrating Excellence
Award will be recognized in June; please consider who you might
formally nominate.

Horizons is long this
month with some most important news, so please read this edition
thoroughly. Those of you who are HMO Blue participants need to pay
particular attention to the relevant article below. Also, we have a
very interesting spotlight on Debbie Hansen, and we must again say congratulations to our Inventory Department on their Team Spirit
Award recognition! We are proud of each of you.

And
finally, our annual Business Affairs Forum is on Thursday the
25th starting at 9:30 a.m. in the Main Building ground
floor auditorium. Guest speakers; more giveaways than last year; the
new Business Affairs ‘Welcome!’ video; an entertaining and fun series
of pictures beginning at 9 a.m.; and perhaps a couple of other
surprises await you – so please come and help fill the auditorium.
Need transportation? Read on!

Faculty, staff and
students calling the UTSA Police Department regarding an emergency
situation should dial 4911 when using a campus phone or 458-4911 from a non campus phone or cell phone. If calling regarding a non-emergency, students should dial 4242 when using a campus
phone or 458-4242 from a non-campus phone or cell phone.

Spotlight
on...Debbie Hansen

Debbie Hansen joined the Disbursements Office on January 28,
2002. “I like the work that I do and consider myself fortunate to be here at UTSA. Nowhere else have I
found such a pervasive spirit of friendliness, cooperation and professionalism.”

Born and raised
in San Marcos, Texas, she attended Texas State
University, then known as Southwest Texas State. Debbie spent
several years in Houston with her husband, Charlie, before moving to San
Antonio. They have been
married since 1985. In 1993, they moved to Boerne, where they currently
reside along with Molly, their cat.

Debbie
was raised in a family that enjoyed music, singing, laughter, church,
family get-togethers and each other. She says, “God has blessed my life
in many ways.” Debbie’s mother had a “green thumb” and Debbie believes
that her mother passed that along to her. Debbie has been blessed from
both sides of her family; her Dad’s parents were Central Texas farmers.
“Either way,” she says of working in her garden, “it is in my blood.”

Taking
daily walks around campus for exercise and recreation, Debbie
has come to know and recognize many people. If you ask Debbie’s
co-workers about her, there's a common response that reflects on her
generosity and kindness. “Debbie is the most thoughtful person we have
in this office. She is also the first one willing to help if at all
possible.” Debbie arrived with her "positive attitude" and in
the past 4 years, she has helped in building Disbursements' reputation
of being customer-oriented and giving everyone she meets her full
attention. Thank you, Debbie, for your commitment to excellence in
Business Affairs and the university.

Police Appreciation Week

National Police Week is May 14 - 19 honoring those law enforcement
officers who, through their courageous deeds, have made the ultimate
sacrifice in service to their community or have become disabled in the
performance of duty, and to voice our appreciation for all those who currently serve on the front
lines of the battle against crime.

Please take time to thank our UTSA police officers and attend a tour of
the police department or the Flag Ceremony. We are celebrating National
Police Week a week earlier, May 8-15, before the students and many
faculty depart for the summer. Below are some of the Police
Appreciation Week activities.

Summer Safety "Citations" wishing the students a safe summer with safety tips. May 8-12, 2006

Police Department Open House - May 8 and 9 with tours at 10:00 am, 11:00 am,
2:00 pm and 3:00 pm each day - If you
wish to take a tour, Go to the PD lobby at the MS Building & wait for a
tour guide at the above listed times.

Wreath and Flag Ceremony with Honor Guard and University
Officials at the Flag Poles - May 15 at 3:00 pm.

Benefits

HMO BLUE PARTICIPANTS face significant out-of-pocket premium
changes for 06-07 fiscal year
Action is required by
employees who are currently covered by
and wish to continue coverage in
the HMO

Due to rising
healthcare costs and available funding, there will be asignificant cost increase to HMO plan
premiums in all coverage categories. Currently, there is no out of
pocket cost for “employee only” coverage. Those employees with
dependent coverage will experience a greater out of pocket cost than
those at the “employee only” level. Additional information about the
premium increase will be provided in the OEB June newsletter. Due
to the rising cost in HMO coverage, the 06-07 fiscal year will most
likely be the last year the HMO Blue plan is offered to University
employees.

In previous years, you
did not have to make a selection if you wanted to retain your existing
coverage. However, if you wish to continue
with HMO Blue you must elect the coverage during the July Annual
Enrollment period by using the UT Touch enrollment system, otherwise you
will be defaulted in the PPO Plan.

REMEMBER:If you do not take action to elect the HMO Blue plan for next year,
you will be enrolled in the UT Select plan for the 06-07 fiscal year.

Faculty and Staff who will be out of the office or who
will not have access to their email accounts during the summer are
encouraged to meet with a benefits representative prior to departure to
ensure their annual enrollment changes will be recorded. Please contact the Benefits Department at benefits@utsa.eduor 458-4250 for an appointment or to answer any
additional questions.

REFRESHMENTS

DOOR PRIZES

GUEST SPEAKERS

T-SHIRT TOSS

Main Building Auditorium 0.104

Shuttle #1 pick up:
ITC at 8:15 a.m.
DTC at 8:30 a.m.

Shuttle #2 pick up:
University Heights at 8:50 a.m.

Inventory Department
-
Team Spirit Award winners

The UTSA Inventory
Department's mission is to report and reconcile all university capital
and controlled inventory. The inventory can either be bought by UTSA
funds, transferred to or donated to UTSA departments. This year, the
inventory staff overcame workload barriers, promoted procedural changes,
maintained task consistency, embraced diversity and provided top-notch
customer service.

The staff, Miriam Marin, George
Estevez, Frank Bates, Olinda Ongay, and James Sumner, have
worked together as a cohesive team, leaning on or lifting each other up
to get the job done right.

This year, they managed
an inventory training schedule that trained 159 people in four months.
They coordinated state agency transfers with other UT System
institutions and state agencies and ensured that property transfers of
nearly $500,000 were recorded correctly. The team overcame file-transfer
crossover failures, system errors and learning curves. They continually
worked out the problems until the files were created, and confirmed the
transfer of 100 percent of inventory records between three databases
with accuracy and reconciliation.

According to their boss,
inventory manager Cassandra Porter, "They've had an amazing year -- far
exceeding established goals that couldn't have been achieved without a
coordinated group effort. I'm very proud to have them on my team."

Business Affairs Service Awards
Congratulations to all Business Affairs employees who received service
awards for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years. To view, click Service Awards. Be sure to thank
these employees for their service to UTSA.

Celebrating Excellence Award

May 31 ends the third
quarter.This is the last month
of the quarter and time for you to nominate a deserving Business Affairs
employee for the Celebrating Excellence Award for their
outstanding efforts demonstrating Creativity, Promoting Change and
Communication in the performance of their duties. You can nominate
someone using the Business Affairs website and clicking on the
Celebrating Excellence logo or through your department using forms
they've specially prepared for their internal programs. Either way,
don't let this opportunity to recognize an outstanding employee go by!

Business Affairs
Branding Initiative

The Business Affairs
management team has partnered with Dr. Tom Cannon, Professor of Marketing
and Tourism, to identify a “brand” for Business Affairs.

To kick off our “branding”
exercise, we asked members of the UTSA community “What is Business
Affairs?” As expected, many people answered by describing one or more
functions within Business Affairs, others described how they felt about
the work done by Business Affairs – some were delighted and others were
not.

Dr. Cannon, became our
partner and our guide, leading us through our own “discovery” of the
customer’s perspective of the benefits received when they interact with
Business Affairs, and how we can build a Business Affairs brand that
represents the promise we make, and keep, with our customers.

A brand is a promise, a
promise to deliver products and service, based on stated objectives (for
example “on time delivery”, Maytag’s lonely repairman, or BMW: “The
Ultimate Driving Machine”.) As consumers, we make purchase decisions
every day as a result of positive and effective branding. Our goal is
to develop a Business Affairs brand that is representative of our commitment to
excellence,…. every person, every day and every job. We want our
customers (internal and external) to feel confident in us and in our
service and delivery commitment; to know that when they seek assistance,
we deliver.

We are anxious to take the
next step – to share what we have learned and to find out from
YOU how we can, together, build a Business Affairs brand that we can all
be proud of. Lastly, and most importantly, we must work every day to
deliver on our commitment to our customers, to live our BRAND.

VPBA Breakfast

The next
VPBA breakfast in the Roadrunner Café will be held June 21st. There will not be a breakfast for July and
August because the café is booked with orientation and summer camps. Breakfasts will
resume in September.

Environmental Health, Safety and
Risk Management

Expanded Chemical Waste
Storage Facility on West Campus: On February 28th,
Environmental Health, Safety and Risk Management (EHSRM) broke ground on
its expansion of the Chemical Waste Storage Facility. The expansion
includes an additional chemical storage building with complete
containment, two material storage container units, a paved drive, and
security fence. Brian Moroney, Director of EHSRM, says this
expansion will serve UTSA's growing research faculty's needs for the
next five years while ensuring the safe storage of these waste materials
until taken offsite for reuse, recycling, or disposal. The $86,000
project is being overseen by Roy Garza, Project Coordinator with
Facilities Services, constructed by Alpha Building Corporation, and
scheduled for completion the first week of May.

Contractors
with Alpha Construction install fence
posts at facility on West Campus

On April 24th, President Romo announced
the appointment of Ysabel Trinidad as interim vice president for student affairs effective immediately.

Ysabel replaces Rosalie Ambrosino, who recently was
named UTSA provost and vice president for academic affairs. We
congratulate Ysabel and look forward to working with her in her new
position.

Other Important
Information

The
Travel Office has completed their move to their new location JPL
4.03.14, just down
the hall from their old location and the Parking and
Transportation Office has relocated to the fourth floor of the
JPL building 4.03.03.